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That's "literally" not it. The piece discusses the neurobiological background, social effects, shows examples, and closes with a recommendation on what to try

by kmarc 2y ago

That's "literally" not it. The piece discusses the neurobiological background, social effects, shows examples, and closes with a recommendation on what to try if you are a victim of doomscrolling. In fact, this writing does have a feel of 10-15y ago blog posts (where you can say, it's too short compared to books written 100-150y ago on a certain topic). I wish some people read this today instead of spending that 8minutes mindlessly scrolling TikTok

Gualdrapo 2y ago
Attention has become the currency of our society and being able to captivate it means you have power. So it's possible someone does a TikTok video about this article, pretty much like some woman did a video about how she found out the comment section in Instagram is completely different between a woman's account and a man's account.
throwaway2037 2y ago
> I wish some people read this today instead of spending that 8minutes mindlessly scrolling TikTok No trolling here: I fail to understand the difference between scrolling TikTok and scrolling shitty cable TV in 2000. It's not that different to me.
- adamrezich 2y ago
  With cable TV, you might click around while finding something to watch, but when you found something to watch, you'd watch it, for multiple minutes, until commercial break. Then, you'd either sit through the commercials, or press JUMP to go back to your "backup channel", with something else you'd want to watch while you estimated the duration of the commercial block on the first channel. The point is, you were being exposed to novel content at a much slower rate than you are when you scroll through your short-video social media feeds. It already wasn't a great situation to begin with, as far as attention spans are concerned, but this new age of short video social media apps has undoubtedly exacerbated the issue.
- kmarc 2y ago
  I do see some. TV shows are longer. And I don't mean double the length, but literally 100xtimes longer. There is a chance you accidentally find a channel with a program that really triggers your curiosity, and then you stop scrolling. On TikTok, this is not possible, after a couple seconds the mildly interesting content is gone. Good luck finding it again, or even remembering what you found interesting in the morning sitting on the toilet swearing "you'll check out this topic later" Another aspect is the quality of the content, which, chances are, higher. Not all of the programmes, obviously, but, again, you might find a documentary, an art piece (aka movie), etc. On TikTok/instagram/yt/Facebook reels anyone can post any rubbish, without any curation, and it's up to some algorithm to decide if it's shown to you. Not to mention the regimen you create, the ritual if you like, of sitting down in front of the TV at the time your beloved programme is aired. I used to think a lot about the "it's the same as TV / newspaper / books used to be" argument, and I definitely believe it's not. Especially since I dated the "book reader" and the "insta story addict" persons and tried to have conversations with them about topics. Day and night. In fact, I started going back to TV. Not the smartphone-controlled / streaming kind, but using the remote. And scrolling through the handful of channels I added to favorites. I do sometimes stop at a random program (yesterday I just learned that there are venomous beetles in Switzerland!). Sometimes I won't and switch the TV off, and just stare out on the windows. TV doomscrolling is bad (news channels to the front). A bit less worse than "social media" (scrolling addiction). I kinda think the suggested meta observation (10-10-10) is worth to try.
- mistermann 2y ago
  If you curate your feed, TikTok offers plenty of useful content, way beyond what you could find on 2000's cable tv, or anywhere else even today. Piggy backing to comment on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40559854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40559854 How can tech people misunderstand social media ML algorithms so badly....gee, I wonder what could cause that.
  - 9dev 2y ago
    That doesn’t refute parent‘s point. It’s still a barrage of different ideas, opinions, or jokes, that’s hitting your brain in very short intervals. You don’t even get to deeply interact with one of the concepts before you’re being shown the next one. Even though you might feel you only watch quality content, that’s only the dopamine addiction speaking. If you don’t believe me, try reading a book for an hour straight, without touching your phone or doing something else. Most people that using social media regularly will struggle doing this.
    - mistermann 2y ago
      > Even though you might feel you only watch quality content, that’s only the dopamine addiction speaking. Did you learn what is happening inside my mind, in fact, by reading a book, or via some more esoteric approach?
- thecodedmessage 2y ago
  Scrolling shitty cable is much less fun and therefore less addictive. It’s also not always available. But both are terrible ways to spend your time and bad for your brain.

by kmarc 2y ago

Gualdrapo 2y ago

Attention has become the currency of our society and being able to captivate it means you have power. So it's possible someone does a TikTok video about this article, pretty much like some woman did a video about how she found out the comment section in Instagram is completely different between a woman's account and a man's account.

throwaway2037 2y ago

> I wish some people read this today instead of spending that 8minutes mindlessly scrolling TikTok No trolling here: I fail to understand the difference between scrolling TikTok and scrolling shitty cable TV in 2000. It's not that different to me.

adamrezich 2y ago
With cable TV, you might click around while finding something to watch, but when you found something to watch, you'd watch it, for multiple minutes, until commercial break. Then, you'd either sit through the commercials, or press JUMP to go back to your "backup channel", with something else you'd want to watch while you estimated the duration of the commercial block on the first channel. The point is, you were being exposed to novel content at a much slower rate than you are when you scroll through your short-video social media feeds. It already wasn't a great situation to begin with, as far as attention spans are concerned, but this new age of short video social media apps has undoubtedly exacerbated the issue.
kmarc 2y ago
I do see some. TV shows are longer. And I don't mean double the length, but literally 100xtimes longer. There is a chance you accidentally find a channel with a program that really triggers your curiosity, and then you stop scrolling. On TikTok, this is not possible, after a couple seconds the mildly interesting content is gone. Good luck finding it again, or even remembering what you found interesting in the morning sitting on the toilet swearing "you'll check out this topic later" Another aspect is the quality of the content, which, chances are, higher. Not all of the programmes, obviously, but, again, you might find a documentary, an art piece (aka movie), etc. On TikTok/instagram/yt/Facebook reels anyone can post any rubbish, without any curation, and it's up to some algorithm to decide if it's shown to you. Not to mention the regimen you create, the ritual if you like, of sitting down in front of the TV at the time your beloved programme is aired. I used to think a lot about the "it's the same as TV / newspaper / books used to be" argument, and I definitely believe it's not. Especially since I dated the "book reader" and the "insta story addict" persons and tried to have conversations with them about topics. Day and night. In fact, I started going back to TV. Not the smartphone-controlled / streaming kind, but using the remote. And scrolling through the handful of channels I added to favorites. I do sometimes stop at a random program (yesterday I just learned that there are venomous beetles in Switzerland!). Sometimes I won't and switch the TV off, and just stare out on the windows. TV doomscrolling is bad (news channels to the front). A bit less worse than "social media" (scrolling addiction). I kinda think the suggested meta observation (10-10-10) is worth to try.
mistermann 2y ago
If you curate your feed, TikTok offers plenty of useful content, way beyond what you could find on 2000's cable tv, or anywhere else even today. Piggy backing to comment on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40559854 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40559854 How can tech people misunderstand social media ML algorithms so badly....gee, I wonder what could cause that.
- 9dev 2y ago
  That doesn’t refute parent‘s point. It’s still a barrage of different ideas, opinions, or jokes, that’s hitting your brain in very short intervals. You don’t even get to deeply interact with one of the concepts before you’re being shown the next one. Even though you might feel you only watch quality content, that’s only the dopamine addiction speaking. If you don’t believe me, try reading a book for an hour straight, without touching your phone or doing something else. Most people that using social media regularly will struggle doing this.
  - mistermann 2y ago
    > Even though you might feel you only watch quality content, that’s only the dopamine addiction speaking. Did you learn what is happening inside my mind, in fact, by reading a book, or via some more esoteric approach?
thecodedmessage 2y ago
Scrolling shitty cable is much less fun and therefore less addictive. It’s also not always available. But both are terrible ways to spend your time and bad for your brain.